Why Gophers football made a home run hire with first-year position coach

P.J. Fleck continues to make the right hires when it comes to building his coaching staff.

Oct 11, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck looks on before the game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Huntington Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The Gophers had plenty of coaching staff turnover in the offseason. Danny Collins notably replaced Corey Heatherman as the defensive coordinator, a change that opened the linebackers coach position. Former Minnesota linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin has filled in seamlessly there in his first season as a Division I positions coach.

Sori-Marin played linebacker for the Gophers from 2018-2022. He appeared in 58 games, he played more than 2,000 career snaps and he finished with 274 total tackles in his college career. He joined Minnesota's coaching staff in 2023 as a defensive analyst, and he was promoted to nickel coach/assistant linebackers coach in 2024.

The 2025 season is his first as a full-time position coach, but it doesn't feel that way. Veteran Gophers linebacker Devon Williams is having a career year with a team-high 56 tackles, Maverick Baranowski has made significant improvements, and true freshman Emmanuel Karmo looks like a future star.

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"He's exactly the guy who I thought he was... He worked with me last year, with the safeties. I saw that drive, I saw the detail of him as a coach... You put him at LBs coach, where he played linebacker here, had that fire," Collins said. "He has that same fire as a coach. You go to practice, see him running around. He demands the most out of his players."

"They love playing for him... If your players love playing for you, that shows you how much you care. They don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care. The way he cares, his drive, it's impressive for how young he is with the command he has, the detail he has. He's going to be an outstanding football coach."

There were plenty of questions at inside linebacker for the Gophers this season. Longtime starter Cody Lindenberg was drafted in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders. He left big shoes for Baranowski and Williams to fill. It's hard to argue that Sori-Marin hasn't gotten the most out of Minnesota's linebacker duo.

Former defensive line coach Winston DeLattiboudere III was the former player extraordinaire before he made the jump to the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals. Sori-Marin isn't coaching the same position, but his future looks incredibly bright in the coaching profession. The Gophers are seeing great returns from the offseason hire.